"OmniTurf in Canada was for the Canadian Football League's Saskatchewan Roughriders's stadium, Taylor Field in Regina. It was installed in 1988 and stayed until the end of the 1999 season. Omniturf Omniturf is a brand of sand in-filled second-generation artificial turf, It was the first artificial surface to be used by an English Football League club. The first club to install this 'plastic grass' surface was Queens Park Rangers who installed the new pitch for the start of the 1981/82 season. Despite much publicity around the supposed unfair advantage the pitch would provide Rangers, they proceeded to lose the opening"
"However, players harshly criticized the field, saying it caused many injuries as a result of the harder surface. When Johan Cruyff became the adviser of the team, he recommended the switch to natural grass, which the team did in 2012. In November 2011, it was reported that a number of English football clubs were interested in using artificial pitches again on economic grounds. As of October 2016, artificial pitches are not permitted in the Premier League or Football League but are permitted in the National League and lower divisions. The two most prominent English football clubs to currently use third-generation"
"match on the new pitch resulted in a 1–1 draw with Nottingham Forest. The new surface became exceedingly unpopular, and was derided as ""the plastic pitch"". Protests about the pitch from other teams resulted in a meeting with a number of major clubs in 1989, mediated by a Football League Commission. The Commission concluded that the pitch had suffered excessive wear and tear from too much use, and Luton installed a new surface, at a cost of £60,000, during the summer of 1989. The second artificial pitch was removed during the summer of 1991, following the banning of such surfaces"
"1 September 1981. During the time that Loftus Road had the Omniturf pitch installed, QPR reached two cup finals and became Second Division champions, something that critics claimed was caused by the advantage the pitch presented, and QPR's home games in the 1984–85 UEFA Cup were played at Arsenal's Highbury Stadium. It was claimed that manager Terry Venables would let opposition teams train on the pitch when it was dry, and then deliberately dampen the pitch so that the ball played differently to what they expected at kick off. It was removed in April 1988 because of football legislation and"
"its grass pitch and installed an artificial one. Others followed, and by the mid-1980s there were four artificial surfaces in operation in the English league. They soon became a national joke: the ball pinged round like it was made of rubber, the players kept losing their footing, and anyone who fell over risked carpet burns. Unsurprisingly, fans complained that the football was awful to watch and, one by one, the clubs returned to natural grass. In the 1990s, many North American soccer clubs also removed their artificial surfaces and re-installed grass, while others moved to new stadiums with state-of-the-art grass"
"pre-arranged locations including pubs rather than at the matches themselves. English clubs who have made the headlines for the worst and most frequent cases of hooliganism include Birmingham City (whose multi racial hooligan element gained the nickname ""Zulus"" from fans of rival teams in the 1970s when football hooligans were almost always white British), Chelsea (whose then chairman Ken Bates installed an electric fence at the club's stadium in the mid 1980s to combat hooligans, but was refused permission to switch it on during matches), Leeds United (who were banned from European competitions following a riot after the 1975 European"
"of covenants placed on the ground, including the clause that the ground could not be sold for development into housing. In 1980, the club's chairman Maurice Cadman announced that Layer Road was in need of £280,000 of basic safety improvement to meet legislation. Plans were drawn up to remove the Open End altogether and construct a 5,000 capacity stand at the Layer Road End and a new main stand on the Popular side. The plans never came to fruition, as further plans for a new stadium were rejected by the Council on the basis of the covenant. Following the Bradford"
"24 April 1976. During the summer of 1981 an artificial pitch of Omniturf was installed at Loftus Road, the first such surface to be used in British professional football. The surface was not favoured by everyone, with QPR keeper Peter Hucker describing it as ""basically a bit of carpet over two feet of concrete"", and stated that as a goalkeeper, he strongly disliked diving onto it saying that ""I'd have close to third degree burns because the pitch would totally rip the skin off."" Rangers lost the first league match played on the new surface 1-2 versus Luton Town on"
"separate cricket and football pitches. Floodlights were installed in 1973 and inaugurated with a friendly match with West Ham United on 7 March, a game that attracted a record crowd of 3,500. The football pitch was moved further south in the early 1980s to prevent overlapping with the cricket oval, with floodlight pylons having to be moved and the original 100-seat stand now being at one end of the pitch rather than on the halfway line; in 1996 it was discovered to contain significant amounts of asbestos and was condemned. A new stand was opened the same year and seats"
"in the 1981/82 season (as a 2nd Division club), and then won the (old) 2nd Division Championship the following season. The innovation at Loftus Road brought mixed results, for while the ball ran smoothly enough over the hard surface, it was unpredictable when allowed to bounce. This caused confusion among defenders and goalkeepers in particular. The Omniturf pitch lasted at Rangers' Loftus Road ground for seven seasons; the pitch was torn up at the end of the 1987/88 season. Other Football League clubs which also laid similar artificial surfaces during the 1980s were Luton Town, Oldham Athletic, and Preston North"
"taking the role instead. By the time of Euro 96, the pitch had been ruled too small for international football and the stadium would have been ineligible. Highbury was the venue for twelve FA Cup semi-finals as a neutral ground, the first in 1929 and the last in 1997, although between 1984 and 1992 it was off the FA's list of approved venues, after Arsenal's refusal to install perimeter fencing following a pitch invasion by Everton fans during their semi-final against Southampton. It also hosted the London XI's home leg against Lausanne Sports in the 1955–58 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup semi-finals;"
"it protected the club from asset strippers, but also meant that the stadium's value could never grow above the £8,250 that Black had paid in 1959. The first match under the new floodlights took place on 3 October 1960, in a London Charity Cup match against Arsenal. Arsenal beat Wimbledon 4–1. The ground remained largely unchanged until the club's election to the Football League, though during 1971–72 an attempt was made to start a market on the club's grounds to raise funds. The High Court ruled that this plan contravened a statute decreed by Charles I in 1628 forbidding any"
"and society"". Luton Town were ordered to construct fences around their ground, a decision that was also reversed. Chelsea chairman Ken Bates claimed that he intended to erect electric fences at Stamford Bridge to avert such an incident at his club. Luton Town announced a £1 million overhaul of Kenilworth Road soon after – the club would spend £350,000 on a new artificial pitch that summer, and £650,000 on converting the ground to an all-seater. Work on the stands began during the summer of 1986, but was not finished until 2005. There have been many incidents of football hooliganism among"
"was built in its place in the 1980s with three steps of terracing. Two covered areas were also built on the other side of the pitch, one of which had seats installed after they were removed from Leytonstone's Granleigh Road ground. Another smaller stand was later built between the two covered areas containing the directors box. Floodlights were installed in 1979 at a cost of £10,000 and inaugurated with a friendly match against Crystal Palace on 30 October, attracting a crowd of over 2,000. Plans were announced in 1995 to move to a new stadium on Courtauld Road next to"
"artificial pitches are Sutton United, whose FIFA 2-Star quality pitch was installed at Gander Green Lane in August 2015, and Maidstone United, whose 2-Star pitch was built along with the new Gallagher Stadium in July 2012. Matches between the two clubs have been named by fans ""El Plastico"" (a reference to El Clásico). Artificial pitches are also permitted in all rounds of The FA Cup competition. The Women's World Cup took place entirely on artificial surfaces, as the event was played in Canada, where almost all of the country's stadiums use artificial turf due to climate issues. This plan garnered"
"Jimmy Hill, Coventry City’s Highfield Road became England’s first all-seater football stadium in 1981. However, the experiment failed to prevent disorder or increase attendances and two years later seats were removed from part of the ground. On 15 April 1989 a crush on the Leppings Lane terrace of Hillsborough during an FA Cup semi final resulted in the deaths of ninety-six Liverpool supporters. Overcrowding had resulted from a gate being opened on police instructions to relieve severe congestion outside the ground and failure to direct supporters away from the already full central pens. Fences at the front of the terrace"
"a Chelsea XI. Dover F.C folded in 1983, but the newly formed Dover Athletic took over the ground and continued to make improvements. When the team won the Southern League championship in 1990, however, promotion to the Football Conference was refused on the grounds that the stadium did not meet the standard required by the higher division. Subsequently, new turnstiles were installed and two new terraces were built behind the goals. The seating in the main stand was replaced and a second grandstand was added on the opposite side of the pitch. These improvements meant that the club was able"
"replaced with an artificial playing surface before the start of the 1985–86 season. The new surface became exceedingly unpopular and was derided as ""the plastic pitch"". That season, they had the distinction of ending Manchester United's 10-match winning start to the league campaign, holding them to a 1–1 draw at Kenilworth Road in their 11th league game on 5 October 1985. The end of 1985–86 saw Pleat leave Luton, as he moved on to Tottenham Hotspur.</ref> He handed over the reins to coach John Moore, who guided Luton to a seventh-place finish in 1986–87, which remains to this day the"
"all-seater stadium by 1995, and by 2001 it had a capacity of more than 42,000. In the mid-1980s, he famously erected an electric perimeter fence around the pitch at Stamford Bridge to prevent pitch invasions, but the fence was soon dismantled after the local council refused him permission to turn the electricity on. Bates spent 21 years at Chelsea, during which time he attracted the headlines on many occasions (many times with the controversial headlines that the club could have done without) and employed no fewer than nine managers. His match-day programme notes, in which he often attacked various individuals,"
"of the few that did not enforce total fan segregation. The 1984 Football League Cup Final at Wembley saw almost all sections of the ground mixed and combined chants of ""Merseyside, Merseyside"" and ""Are you watching Manchester?"" Since the mid-1980s, however, the rivalry has intensified on and off the field, and since the inception of the Premier League has had more red cards than any other game. Everton F.C. were founded in 1878 and from 1884 played their home matches at Anfield, which was owned by club chairman John Houlding. Several board members of Everton were members of the Liberal"
"in October 1980 to an empty stadium. After rioting by fans in a semi-final at Anderlecht in Belgium the previous April, Aston Villa were forced to begin their defence of the European Cup at an empty Villa Park in September 1982, with the match kicking off at 2.30 pm on a Wednesday afternoon. As a result of a policeman being killed during rioting at a Serie A match between Catania and Palermo on 2 February, the Italian Football Federation suspended all Italian matches indefinitely. Subsequently, matches resumed but many clubs were ordered to play their games behind closed doors until"
"Estates was ultimately forced into bankruptcy after a market crash in the early 1990s, allowing Bates to do a deal with its banks and re-unite the freehold with the club. During the 1984–85 season, following a series of pitch invasions and fights by football hooligans during matches at the stadium, chairman Ken Bates erected an electric perimeter fence between the stands and the pitch – identical to the one which effectively controlled cattle on his dairy farm. However, the electric fence was never turned on and before long it was dismantled, due to the GLC blocking it from being switched"
"by FIFA to the World Cups until the 1994 cup after the perceived dominance of defensive play at Italia 90.) The early 1980s also saw a significant decline in league attendances as a result of the recession and the ongoing problem of hooliganism. This did no favours for the financial position and league standing of numerous clubs, and several – including Wolverhampton Wanderers, Swansea City and Middlesbrough – were almost forced out of business as a result. The fortunes of the First Division clubs suffered a fresh blow in 1985 when all English clubs were banned from European competitions as"
"underwent extensive redevelopment during the 1930s, and the capacity by the start of the Second World War was 30,000. Floodlights were installed before the 1953–54 season, but it was 20 years before any further modernisation was carried out. In 1973 the Bobbers Stand became all-seated, and in 1985 the grass pitch was replaced with an artificial playing surface; it quickly became unpopular and was derided as ""the plastic pitch"". A serious incident involving hooliganism before, during and after a match against Millwall in 1985 caused the club's then chairman, Conservative MP David Evans, to introduce a scheme effective from the"
"Longmead Stadium The Longmead Stadium is an association football stadium in Tonbridge, Kent, England. It is home to Tonbridge Angels, who currently compete in the Isthmian League Premier Division. The Longmead Stadium was built in 1980 by Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council after they had decided to redevelop Tonbridge Angels' Angel Ground in 1977 into a shopping centre. Tonbridge Angels were against the plans to evict them and demolish the Angel Ground and so took out a legal challenge against the plans. Three years later, the High Court ruled in favour of the borough council however, the council offered Tonbridge"
"Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium is a football stadium in Wembley, London, England, which opened in 2007, on the site of the original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 2002–2003. The stadium hosts major football matches including home matches of the England national football team, and the FA Cup Final. The stadium is also the temporary home of Premier League football club Tottenham Hotspur until at least January 2019, while White Hart Lane is being demolished and their new stadium is being constructed. Wembley Stadium is owned by the governing body of English football, the Football Association (the FA), through its"
"replaced with grass. There were just three other league stadiums in the whole country with a plastic pitch, and by 1994 all of these had been ripped up. New stands were opened at the School End in the summer of 1980 and one year later at the Loftus Road end. At the same time as the new Loftus Road stand was built executive boxes were installed in the lower tier of the South Africa Road stand and the artificial pitch laid. The stadium capacity at this time was 27,000 and it was one of the most modern and advanced stadiums"
"First Division in 1980, and in 1984 they fell into the Third Division, though an upswing in form followed and they were back in the First Division by 1987. Perimeter fencing was erected between the stands and the pitch during the 1970s to combat pitch invasions by hooligans, but this was dismantled in April 1989, within days of the Hillsborough disaster in which 96 Liverpool fans were fatally injured, most of them crushed to death against perimeter fencing. This resulted in policing levels in games at the Baseball Ground being increased by 50%. Derby County remained at the stadium until"
"pitch for football, and a synthetic surface underneath for NFL games and other events. The project is estimated to cost £850 million and is intended to be a catalyst for a wider regeneration scheme in Tottenham. Beginning in the 1980s, the Tottenham home ground White Hart Lane was redeveloped, and in order to comply with the recommendation of the Taylor Report, it was turned into an all-seater stadium. The capacity of the stadium was reduced from 50,000 in 1979 to around 36,000 by the time it was completed in 1998. The capacity was by then lower than other major English"
"the largest Football League grounds in Britain, although its highest maximum capacity of 75,000 was only half the capacity of Glasgow's Hampden Park. However, Charlton's long absence from the top level of English football prevented much-needed renovation. Eventually, the club's debts led to bankruptcy administration. A consortium of supporters successfully acquired the club in 1984, but the Valley remained under the ownership of the club's former owner. However, the club was unable to finance the improvements needed to make the Valley meet new safety requirements. Shortly after the start of the 1985-86 season, Charlton left the Valley, entering into an"
"from the borough of Haringey. The new stadium has been designed by Populous, which also designed derby rival Arsenal's home, the Emirates Stadium. Initial designs were created by KSS Design Group back in 2008, but long delays allowed for major changes to the scheme by a different company. When the club was first formed in 1882, the club played its matches on public land at the Park Lane end of Tottenham Marshes. As the ground was on public land, the club could not charge admission fees for spectators, and while the number of spectators grew to a few thousands within"
"for the new venture. Volunteers prepared the pitch in anticipation, but their plans were scuppered when the ex-chairman of Stevenage Athletic — and stadium lease-holder — desecrated the playing surface at Broadhall Way by digging a trench across the full length of the pitch. The club eventually moved into Broadhall Way in 1980 as a result of the council re-purchasing the stadium, and allowed the football club to become its tenant. Following Stevenage's successful 1995–96 Conference National campaign, the Hertfordshire side were denied promotion to the Football League because of insufficient ground capacity and facilities. Consequently, in the early 2000s,"
"unable to contain the weight of the crowd and had the reinforcement in the concrete exposed, the wall's piers had been built the wrong way around and that there was a small building at the top of the terrace that contained long plastic tubing underneath. His report was never used in any inquiry for the disaster. Pressure mounted to ban English clubs from European competition. On 31 May 1985, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher asked the FA to withdraw English clubs from European competition before they were banned, but two days later, UEFA banned English clubs for ""an indeterminate period"